Sunday, January 9, 2011

Moira Recommends: Accidentally AP Books

These are all authors that Moira loves, and that I love too because they are great examples of gentle parenting or why it's important to listen to your kids or other things that align well with our parenting style. There are a number of books Moira loves that make me cringe every time I read, like the Curious George books.The Oliver and Amanda Easy Reader series by Jean Van Leeuwen - The parent pigs in this series are very creative, gentle and engaged with their kids. When Amanda is scared of the hall clock at night time, her father helps her scare off the monster. When Amanda is having a bad day and the mood spreads to her mother, the mom lovingly sits down and talks about her feelings. The two children play well and creatively together, despite age and temperament differences and when they do have fights, they work them out (with and without parental help) in a thoughtful way, rather then the issues being swept under the rug. I have mostly been concentrating on the Amanda books in this series because she is younger and therefore school isn't a big plot line.Robert Munsch best known in the US for Love You Forever which I think is a vaguely horrifying book what with the mother sneaking into her grown child's house to rock him into the middle of the night, but most people love. Munsch is a beloved Canadian children's author well known for writing that frequently gets banned by libraries or school systems because the plot lines can be very subversive. In many of the books the parents don't listen to what the kid is saying, either because they don't understand or because they aren't paying enough attention. Most of the problems in the books are solved by kids taking the situation in their own hands.

3 comments:

HAhahaa! OK, you just cracked me up! I actually love "Love You Forever"........but you're SO right. It IS kinda creepy. LOL! But it still always makes me cry. Maybe it's because me oldest is a MAN CHILD now. *sigh* I even have a really pretty tune I made up to go with the song the mama sings. :) Thanks for the book suggestion! Sounds neat!